学 海 无 涯 大学英语精读大学英语精读第第 5 5 册和第册和第 6 6 册全文册全文课文翻译课文翻译 A Kind of Sermon It is probably easier for teachers than for students to appreciate the reasons why learning English seems to become increasingly difficult once the basic structures and patterns of the language have been understood Students are naturally surprised and disappointed to discover that a process which ought to become simpler does not appear to do so It may not seem much consolation to point out that the teacher too becomes frustrated when his efforts appear to produce less obvious results He finds that students who were easy to teach because they succeeded in putting everything they had been taught into practice hesitate when confronted with the vast untouched area of English vocabulary and usage which falls outside the scope of basic textbooks He sees them struggling because the language they thought they knew now appears to consist of a bewildering variety of idioms clich d and accepted phrases with different meanings in different contexts It is hard to convince them that they are still making progress towards fluency and that their English is certain to improve given time and dedication In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that some give up in disgust while others still wait hopefully for the teacher to give them the same confident guidance he was able to offer them at first The teacher for his part frequently reduced to trying to explain the inexplicable may take refuge in quoting proverbs to his colleagues such as You can lead a horse to water but you can t what you say It s the way that you say it His students might feel inclined to counter these with The more I learn the less I know Of course this is not true What both students and teachers are experiencing is the recognition that the more complex structures one encounters in a language are not as vital to making oneself understood and so have a less immediate field of application For the same reason from the teacher s point of view selecting what should be taught becomes a more difficult task It is much easier to get food of any kind than to choose the dish you would most like to eat on a given day from a vast menu Defining the problem is easier than providing the solution One can suggest that students should spend two or three years in an English speaking country which 一番说教一番说教 也许老师比学生更容易理解 为什么学 生在掌握了英语基本结构和句型后英语学 习反而变得越来越困难了 学生们自然感到 惊奇并失望地发现本来应该变得越来越容 易的学习过程却完全不是那么回事 学生们并不感到多少安慰 在知道老师 在其努力所产生的效果似乎不及一开始明 显也会灰心丧气 他发现那些学生很容易去 教 为他们能把所学的知识很快的用于实 践 可现在 他们却面对前阶段中从未学过 的大量生词 惯用法显得踌躇不前 他看到 学生们在艰难地努力着 因为他们以前认为 已经认识的语言现在似乎充满了令人头昏 眼花的成语 陈旧用语以及在不同上下文中 有不同含义的惯用词组 要想让他们相信 他们仍朝着精通的方向发展 他们英语就一 定提高是很困难的 并且 只要肯花时间和 持之以恒 有些学生在此情况下厌恶地放弃了学 习 这并不出人意外 同时 另一些学生仍 然充满希望地盼着老师象开始时那样给他 们以满怀信心的指导 从教师这方面看 由 于往往不得不去讲解一些无法说清楚的东 西 他常常会对同事们引用一些谚语权充台 阶 比如 你能牵马河边走 马不饮水你自 愁 或说得比较尊重对方但语法并不严谨 倒不在乎说什么 关键瞧您怎么说 他的学 生则会反唇相讥道 我越学越糊涂 事实当然并非如此 师生们正体验着一种共 识 即学习中遇到的较复杂的语言结构在表 达思想中并非至关重要 因此也就少有可能 立刻派上用场 出于同样的理由 在老师看 来 恰当地选择教材变得更困难了 任选一 种食品比从品种繁多的菜单上单挑一道在 某个特定日子里你想吃的菜要容易多了 学 海 无 涯 amounts to washing one s hands of them Few students have the time or the money to do that It is often said that wide reading is the time or the money to do that It is often said that wide reading is the best alternative course of action but even here it is necessary to make some kind of selection It is no use telling students to go to the library and pick up the first book they come across My own advice to them would be read what you can understand without having to look up words in a dictionary but not what you can understand at a glance read what interests you read what you have time for magazines and newspapers rather than novels unless you can read the whole novel in a week or so read the English written today not 200 years ago read as much as you can and try to remember the way it was written rather than individual words that puzzled you And instead of read I could just as well say listen to My advice to teachers would be similar in a way I would say It s no good thinking that anything will do or that all language is useful It s no good relying on students to express themselves without the right tools for expression It s still your duty to choose the best path to follow near the top of the mountain just as it was to propose a practicable short cut away from the beaten track in the foothills And if the path you choose is too overgrown to make further progress the whole party will have to go back and you will have to choose another route You are still the paid guide and expert and there is a way to the top somewhere The Fifth Freedom More than three centuries ago a handful of pioneers crossed the ocean t Jamestown and Plymouth in search of freedoms they were unable to find in their own countries the freedoms of we still cherish today freedom from want freedom from fear freedom of speech freedom of religion Today the descendants of the early settlers and those who have joined them since are fighting to protect these freedoms at home and throughout